Snow misses CBD lunch appointment

Page Tools

Related

Despite weather bureau predictions of a 40 per cent chance of
snow in the CBD, lunchtime passed with not a hint of white.

But suburbs and outlying areas like Donvale,in the east,
Doreen and Gisborne in the north, and Seaford in the south, all had
snow falls by 2pm. Residents said falls were minor, with snow
melting before it hit the ground.

A weather bureau spokeswoman said rain bands were circling the
city.

"It's really frustrating, the showers are skirting around and
we've had reports of falls in the suburbs, but it just keeps
missing the city. It's Murphy's Law," she said.

Like other bands of rain previously moving towards the city, the
large rain band moving from Geelong towards Melbourne at noon broke
up when it got to Avalon, in the west, about 12.30pm, she said.

On the observation deck of the Rialto, the city's tallest
building, about 60 tourists, schoolchildren and others gathered in
temperatures hovering around 10 degrees, today's forecast top.

But despite ominous-looking cloud banks and fronts swirling
around the city, none failed to drop what would have been the CBD's
first snowfall in 20 years.

Nor did binoculars yield a glimpse of white atop the three
mountain ranges visible form the observation deck - the Brisbane
Ranges, Dandenongs, and Great Dividing Range, which was shrouded in
purple cloud.

A line from Echuca

Senior forecaster Scott Williams said the air across Melbourne
and Victoria would be cold enough to produce snow in almost every
area of the state over the next 24 hours, including low-lying areas
at sea-level.

"It's possible to get snow anywhere today except in the
north-west of the state. So if you drew a line from Echuca (in the
north) to Horsham (in the west), you could only rule out that part
of the state," he said.

Snow was last recorded in the CBD on July 25, 1986 - but it had
turned to slush by the time it hit the ground. The last time enough
fell to be gathered up on city streets was July 1951, Mr Williams
said.

"It's certainly the coldest air mass we've had over us for the
last 20 odd years," he said.

Melbourne's coldest day so far this winter was July 9, when the
temperature peaked at 10.3.

Today, Melbourne's temperature has already topped five degrees,
so the record for the coldest day with a maximum of 4.4 degrees -
set on July 4, 1901 - won't be broken.

Snow has already fallen in the low-lying townships of Ballarat,
in central Victoria, and Colac and Winchelsea, in the state's
south-west.

Road danger

But with the excitement of snow comes danger to road users. Mr
Williams said the cold snap meant a high probability of black ice
on highways this evening.

"This afternoon and evening will be a particularly dangerous
time around Melbourne, particularly on the roads leading out of
Melbourne to surrounding foothills 30 or 40 kilometres from the
CBD," he said.

Mr Williams said that while the freezing temperatures were not
an unusual occurrence over the past 150 years, they were an
aberration in light of recent decades of global warming.

"Against the backdrop of gradually rising temperatures globally,
we haven't had many days under 10 degrees in Melbourne over the
last 20 years," he said.

The state's snow resorts have also benefited, with Mount Buller,
Falls Creek and Mount Hotham all receiving at least 20 centimetres
of snow overnight.

"There will be more snow showers on all of those mountains today
and tomorrow," he said.